I often ask myself the question that seems to permeate every part of my pedagogy in American public education: who is this for? It's simple at the outset, but, when answering it, I find myself at an intersection of American pathology that is fraught with complications and, more importantly, American history. I'm native to a complicated membership of a working class that's known both desperate levels of poverty as well as upper education struggling within the middle class. Living there, then, means that while I'm able to go to the grocery store and purchase whatever I want there is a lingering and aching part of me that remembers saving pennies found in the couches of my friends so that I could make the ends meet.

All of that is seen through the lens of a person who also critically recognizes race. It is not a popular place to be, but I'm comfortable there now.

Last week I took part in an important conversation not just in my city but within the confines of the school district for which I work. It's crucial to note that it wasn't an accident. I might go so far as to admit that I lobbied for this, both in my writing and the important work of institutionalized racism. The topical racism which has become a momentous conversation in the United States scratches the surface of what we're truly built on, but it seems that if one permits entry into that discussion one is, somehow, less patriotic.

I call shenanigans on that.

The seminar, put on by CrossRoads Antiracism Organizing & Training, put things into perspective for me and other participants in a way I have never before experienced at a conference. That was, of course, the point. Led by Robette Dias (a member of the Karuk Indian Tribe in California) we went through a number of activities that helped us see America as she truly is: an Apartheid nation built with a framework of a European Colonialism power structure that never lets us forget who wants the power and what lengths they're willing to go through to keep it.

That's a strong sentence, Iknow. But, if we're going to talk about institutional racism we have to remember that racism is the enemy and the enemy uses pawns to complete the work.

One of the tools used by CrossRoads is to create an unabridged version of American history in an exercise called The Wall of History. Four large sections of wall were used by the audience to note the building of our nation from the knowledge of the participants. We didn't use our smart phones or Google to come up with what we've learned but rather worked together to create a comprehensive list of our knowledge of the past. It helps, therefore, to have educated people in the room with you. For example, when asked about the year that the first enslaved African was kidnapped and brought to the shores of this country, I was grateful that Kathryn Harris (whom I have written about before here and here) was sitting at my table. She's an African-American research librarian who has just retired from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. (As luck would have it, she and I keep running into one another since then.)

"1619," she shouted out through the silence of the room. No one else knew that answer off the top of their heads when Robette asked the question.

Robette reminded us of the name of the ship that brought him here: Jesus. And, I thought, "Jesus. Really?" (Named both The Good Ship Jesus and Jesus of Lubeck.)

The 4 quadrants were broken down into categories so we didn't fit too much on each wall. The top portion was for us to name racism/racist practices and laws that helped build this nation. On the bottom, we later put resistance to racism. If you don't think American nation building is important or why there's such resistance to teaching history then look no further at why libraries were the first things to be burned down when a conquering culture tried to take over.

I should stop to mention that there were multiple institutions in that room. Education (both public and parochial), media, a medical school contingency, a local public university, and city organizers. It was hosted by the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism (SCoDR) in the Sacred Heart Convent and one of the Dominican Sisters, Sister Marcelline, has pushed for this work for years.

In a sincere moment, I pulled Sister Marcelline aside and asked, "Why do you do this work? I mean, why is antiracism so important to you?" and she promptly answered, "Because, as a Sister, I'm involved with social justice." She actually continued on for quite a bit detailing the work that's important to her as a follower of Jesus and I told her that she could have left it at that one sentence and I would have understood.

Back in January, my father saved an article from our local independent newspaper, Illinois Times, because he wanted me to read about the work the church is doing (he's a die-hard Catholic who found a church quickly once he moved here) and he asked me if I knew some of the people mentioned in the article. I hadn't, but I got to meet them during this 3-day training.

Doing the work of anti-racism is where I am right now. For the last 10 years of writing online my writing has morphed into doing this work and not just the calling out of racism. This work, institutional work, is where we break down the barriers that intersect race and gender and class. It's not binary work, either, as discussions and caucuses moved us into groups of White/European and People of Color. Robette, being a Native American, got us to think about this country as a practice/culture of Apartheid but she also mentioned that the colonialism for Natives still hasn't ended.

"They still haven't left," she said dryly during our discussion. It was a salient argument in a sobering moment.

When people ask me what they can do, and those questions come with more frequency than ever before, this is what I want to tell them to do. Get your organization or institution this training. Get your politicians to look at our history and how we continue to perpetuate racism as policy in this country so we can have honest conversations about change. Get to de-constructing this national practice so we can move forward.

]]>Virtual Field Trip: Wild Biomeshttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/3/26/virtual-field-trip-wild-biomes.htmlMocha Momma2015-03-26T22:28:39Z2015-03-26T22:28:39ZThis is a sponsored post. However, my passion for education and global water concerns are, as always, my own.

I am supremely disappointed in my inability to grow things in a sustainable manner. It's not entirely my fault, though, because I grew up learning how to fix things and cook so that's my wheelhouse. When I first became a homeowner I envied the manicured lawns and flowers my neighbors kept but instead of trying to grow anything, I bought potted plants that lasted only as long as I remembered to water them.

This house, though, the one that I share with The Cuban, is laid out in such a way that makes it possible for sunlight to hit it just right for a nice garden. You'd think I would have a nice one, but weeding is truly a pain and one that I grumble through as a chore each summer. We've tried growing some food but with the woods so close to our house the bunnies ate everything or the bugs got it and the weeds OH MY GOD ALL THE WEEDS.

I freely admit that I fail at such things.

However, this year we're trying hydroponics and we're not doing it outside at all. The Cuban is spearheading this and building things and he made a bell siphon to keep the water flowing. It's all very complicated and I'd explain it but I do best just eating the tomatoes and cilantro and rosemary he's growing. It's our own little biome but not really, you know? (See? I told you I shouldn't explain those things.)

But, do you know what time it is? It's time for another VIRTUAL field trip.

I truly enjoy sharing these because you can do it at home or in your classroom. You don't even have to pack a bag for this.

The Nature Conservancy's Nature Works Everywhere's is planning a live Google Hangout for grade 3-8 classrooms focusing on comparing and contrasting the role of water and how it works in two dramatically different biomes – the rainforests Washington State and the desert in Arizona. Students can learn how water affects and is affected by the people, animals and plants in these two distinctive ecosystems. (So, a bit different than our homemade hydroponics.)

The Virtual Field Trip - Wild Biomes: From America’s Rainforest to America’s Desert

If you're a classroom teacher, here are the bare bones details:

On April 8, 2015 at 12 pm ET, The Nature Conservancy is putting on a virtual field trip they've titled Wild Biomes: From America’s Rainforest to America’s Desert. The Nature Conservancy’s senior hydrologist on The Nature Conservancy’s Global Water team will be teaching the science behind how people and nature can work together.

Teachers and parents can sign up to take part in the virtual field trip here: http://ow.ly/K9huo

Why sign up? The aim of this virtual field trip is to build students’ knowledge of and emotional connection to environmental issues that are at the heart of The Nature Conservancy’s mission.

For teachers: The Nature Conservancy and NatureWorksEverywhere are excellent classroom resources for science and geography.

Tomorrow, my own 6th grade students are participating in our culminating project on sustainable and clean water. We do this every year in order to learn how water affects people and how clean water is a problem in many developing countries. In fact, this field trip is a natural extension of what my own students are doing because it also looks at how people affect water. They've learned where their water comes from already and that globally we have a water crisis.

On the field trip, students will get to hear from Kari Vigerstol, the senior hydrologist on The Nature Conservancy’s Global Water team from Seattle. It's hosted by Tyler DeWitt who will introduce the field trip, interview Kari, and take questions from students. Since it's virtual, we'll travel to the lush, rain-soaked splendor of the Olympic Peninsula and explore the urban watershed of Seattle. While they get a lot of water, the challenge is keeping it safe and clean. Next, we’ll head to Arizona’s dry, desert landscape and take a tour down the Verde River, one source of water that nourishes this parched land. Here, people and other living things must adapt to a limited water supply, yet sudden and violent storms can dump seven inches of rain in a single night.

Teachers may want to pre-teach some vocabulary that's necessary to understanding just how nature and water work with people. During the chat, there will be a couple of students asking questions of the experts. These KeyConcepts and Terms will get students started:

Tune in for our live Google hangout at 12:00 pm (EST) on April 8, 2015, to find out how geography, people, and water interact in two of America’s “wildly” unique biomes. It's 40 minutes long, and my students and I will be there. Join us! Maybe sometime in the near future, I'll show you how those tomatoes and cilantro and rosemary turn out.

]]>Before the Good Guys Were Liked: Dr. King’s Untold Storieshttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/2/27/before-the-good-guys-were-liked-dr-kings-untold-stories.htmlMocha Momma2015-02-27T20:28:25Z2015-02-27T20:28:25ZThis is part three of a sponsored post series with Wells Fargo.

In my lifetime everyone has always referred to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a hero. He has, to my knowledge, always been revered, there’s always been a holiday honoring him, and there’s always been a monument dedicated to his legacy. When I got the whole story, however, I was shocked that I didn’t know all the untold stories.

By the time I got to college I learned about the FBI spying on him, his reported infidelities, and how much he was hated during his lifetime.

In case you don’t know about any of those things in my previous paragraph, feel free to watch the brilliant film SELMA by director Ava DuVernay that was released last month. Due to her vision and the way she directed it, you won’t be able to leave the theatre and forget that Dr. King was a watched man by the FBI.

Yet, what about the polls throughout the 1960s questioning his popularity? Were the marches and protests and speeches he made successful or did he hit popularity low? Are the stories we tell our children a fair representation or should we discuss the radical, disastrous parts as well?

Looking back on American history, it’s easy to see how the narratives of Black men and women have been shaped, but we’ve done an unfair job of showing the North as more ‘progressive’ than the South. While Selma became a famous march and his I Have a Dream became his most famous speech, Dr. King encountered plenty of wrath in his time.

Some of the untold history of Dr. King’s work rests on failed protests and counter-protests. Beginning in 1965, Dr. King began to focus on housing issues in Chicago, an issue that many found more unpalatable than simply riding an integrated bus. While marching through Marquette Park with other protestors about the unfair housing laws, King said this became the most ugly encounter with counter-protestors that he’d even seen.

There was massive resistance from Whites in the North, thousands of whom came out to scream and hurl objects at the non-violent group that included Dr. King as they marched throughout the Southwest and Northwest sides of Chicago. The protests were to oppose discriminatory ordinances barring rental or purchasing property, something systemic racism has perpetuated for so long that the legacy of that cycle continues to be a struggle.

About his time in Chicago, King said, “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen – even in Mississippi and Alabama – mobs as hostile and hate-filled as I’ve seen in Chicago. I think the people from Mississippi ought to come to Chicago to learn how to hate.”

While the Chicago Freedom Movement wasn’t as successful as the marches in Birmingham and Selma, they weren’t total failures. The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities came out of this movement, which put the focus on housing discrimination, something that long needed to be corrected as it was systemic policy.

Dr. King was vehemently disliked over his anti-war sentiments as well, but the prevailing thought at the time was that his work should be singular in nature and focus on singular issues. However, he was fighting for a variety of aspects of the marginalized lives of Blacks. Workers’ rights, unions, anti-war, housing discrimination, voting rights. These were complicated issues that were built into the layered system of discrimination that the Civil Rights fought and continues to fight.

One would think that his colleagues of the cloth would be supportive of the Reverend King, but many clergymen penned open letters to Dr. King criticizing his work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They considered him an outside agitator who was a part of the “them” against their “us”. Though some ministers were affiliated with the SCLC, they still practiced xenophobic beliefs about his work. Responding to them in his famous Letter From Birmingham Jail, Dr. King supplied them with not only a moral impetus for his appearance at protests, but he pushed back on their privileged status.

The way we’ve created narratives to justify and shape the way we look at the legacy of people who worked for the fight for Civil Rights isn’t as clear-cut as it should be. These untold, or not-told-as-much, stories are still a part of our history. The radical thing to do would be for us to look at it directly and keep peeling apart the privileged systems that favor some and punish others. The radical thing to do would be to continue to fight, even as unpopular as that is, because it’s still the right thing to do.

]]>I Gotchuhttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/2/25/i-gotchu.htmlMocha Momma2015-02-25T22:49:34Z2015-02-25T22:49:34ZLast night, Mason came over and, since he has the impeccable timing of a 23-year-old-about-to-live-on-his-own, he knew exactly when we were cooking dinner so that he could cop a free meal out of us. It's awesome and bizarre how his timing works, but he also knew that I baked cookies over the weekend so he went searching for them.

I'm so much better at hiding things in my own house now that they're older.

I used to keep everything I didn't want them to see with all the cleaning supplies. They never seemed to look there. WHY WOULD THEY EVER NEED TO CLEAN?

He's still going to school but it's taken him longer than his sisters because he's worked full time as a Youth Group leader. He's wanted to go into the ministry but it's fascinating watching him figure out that ministry comes in many forms. Right now, he's learning to work with a younger group of kids in elementary and when he told me about that job I tried to give him some advice.

You know how uncomfortable it is to get advice from your mom, right? When you add to that the fact that I've worked in education for 2 decades you get quite a know-it-all.

I'm nothing if not entirely self-reflective in my work.

And humble. I got that in spades.

I teased him, "Why do you need my advice?"

His response shocked me. "Because I had a moment today when I turned into Kelly Wickham. Something came out of my mouth and I thought, hmmmm. I'm my mother."

Much of the advice I gave him was to forge relationships with the children and to make sure he knew their play time was really their serious work time. When it seems like they're just playing tetherball or 4-square outside, join in with them. That builds a trust on another level than when you're sitting next to them in a classroom. He mentioned a kid that drives other adults crazy but said he just got right in his face and knelt down on his level.

"You got knee-to-knee-eye-to-eye with him." I told him.

"What is that?" he asked.

I took longer to explain it to him.

"Just a term in education about connecting with kids but not making them look up to you for it. Sit down next to them. Kneel. Get all the way on the floor if you have to. With middle schoolers, I just do what they do. If they flop onto my bean bag to chat, I get down there, too. Whey they want to stare at the ceiling because they don't want to make eye contact, then I crawl on the floor and look up, too. Make sure you're always knee-to-knee, Mason."

Mason, celebrating his 23rd birthday. My son-in-law looks blurry, but it ended up being such a great picture of Mason that I love it.

My knee-to-knee takes on other forms as well. For the better part of a week I've been debating on talking to a student about something I've been noticing at lunchtime. Part of my supervision duty requires that I attend all 3 lunch shifts daily and, while it's a giant chunk of my day where I can't take phone calls or drop-ins from students needing to talk to me, it's where I do my best Margaret Mead anthropological work. In their natural habitat, kids are best viewed by a prowling administrator walking from table to table and checking in with them. I take notes in my head and learn which friendships are struggling, who is going out with whom, and which students might be on the verge of a breakthrough. Or, worse, a breakdown.

Lunch time supervision is my jam. It's how I connect with kids in an unstructured environment. When they see me visiting classrooms they're far more academic-based. The cafeteria is where that guard comes down.

I stand near the cashier and check their trays out when they pass by, commenting one every third one or so.

All your lunch is one color: brown. Get an apple or some broccoli or a salad, would ya?

Did you remember to get a fruit?

Oooohhhh, somebody likes tacos. GUESS WHO ELSE LIKES TACOS?

Aren't you getting milk? Or would you rather have a juice or water?

When they were passing by, I told one of them, henceforth known as Cool Kid, to come see me when he was done eating. He asked if he was in trouble and I made my You-Talking-Crazy face. "Nah, you're good. Just see me before you head outside."

He couldn't wait so when he was halfway done he made eye contact with me from his table and mouthed, "Now?" and I didn't want to torture him so I yanked my head towards the door and sat on the Ball Box (where I am Queen of the Basketballs/Footballs) to chat.

Cool Kid: You wanted to talk to me?

Me: Yes. You know how (name redacted) has been sitting at your table for lunch? Well, I was talking to his dad and (name redacted) is really excited about being able to sit there. Right now he's working on making friends and the other night he was saying his son couldn't stop talking about all his "new cool friends". He believes he's sitting at the Cool Kids table. He thinks you're all the best athletes and very smart, but it's hard for him to make friends.

Cool Kid: Ok. So?

Me: So, is it the Cool Kids table? Are you boys popular?

Cool Kid: (laughing) Well. Yeah.

Me: So I don't want you to mess this up. I want you to take this responsibility seriously and I want you to treat him well. There will be no laughing at him, but you may laugh with him. Can you read between the lines here?

I had to pause for a moment here with him because we got interrupted by a student looking for a cough drop. Since I was sitting down and couldn't see her coming, I listened to his body language say that I should crane my neck to see who was coming down the stairway. I listened to his facial language say, Stop. Pause. I know this is important but someone is here so please don't say this in front of her.

After I answered her question and she trotted off, he continued, not letting me speak first. I took it to mean that he knew where this was going and didn't need my overkill on it.

Cool Kid: I don't want to disappoint you or nothing, but I gotchu.

Me: (starting to tear up because he was getting this) You be nice to him, okay? You are a leader at that table and with your friends. This is a chance for you to show me your character. More importantly, it's a chance for you to show him what it means to be a kid like you.

How much more can we pour into children when we expect the best from them and how much return does that give? Adolescent-age kids are in desperate need of higher expectations with a dose of reality when they mess up. Even if children do make mistakes, this is where they want to make them and learn from them. A lot of my own Office Advice sounds like this:

You want to mess up here and learn from it. It's much harder when you're older. Old people are stubborn. You get to make mistakes in life, you know that?

I guess lunchtime supervision is my jam. Knee-to-knee is my jam. Letting kids be leaders and allowing them to be flawed and amazing people is my jam.

And giving my son advice in writing like this is the luckiest jam of all. I hope you got something out of this, Mason. I gotchu.

]]>My Untold Story: Kathryn Harris as Harriet Tubmanhttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/2/21/my-untold-story-kathryn-harris-as-harriet-tubman.htmlMocha Momma2015-02-21T18:01:27Z2015-02-21T18:01:27ZThis is part two of a sponsored series with Wells Fargo.

“When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven!” - Harriet Tubman

Kathryn Harris answers to another name entirely. It’s not her name nor any variation thereof, yet she will respond when people say it. The name is Harriet Tubman.

As a master storyteller and Director of Library Services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, Kathryn long ago decided that she wanted to ensure that other stories, sometimes from marginalized peoples, were told. It came about when an outreach program for cultural events contacted her about visiting a school in Springfield. At the time, Kathryn was a member of the Sangamon County Historical Society. She joined in 1998 and went on a cemetery walk at Oakridge Cemetary to learn about historical figures in Central Illinois where she learned the story of Phoebe Floorville, wife of Willie. Willie Floorville was the barber of Abraham Lincoln and finding her gravestone set Kathryn on a path she didn’t expect.

Naturally, that led to her dressing up as and speaking in character as she researched the life of Harriet. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world for a librarian to use her own resources and learn about the life of the woman who ran the Underground Railroad.

Image of Kathryn Harris with Desmond Tutu courtesty of the Abraham Lincoln Presidntial Library and Museum

She’s played her in schools and civic events all around the world, not just in Springfield, dozens of times each year for many years.

Kelly: Did you ever wonder how you got here? How you got to play Harriet as such an important part of American history?

Kathryn: Harriet’s taken to me to lots of places that I never would have been! Let’s see, I’ve visited Washington, DC and was a guest of the National Alliance for Faith & Justice. I can’t believe where I’ve gotten to visit because of Harriet. Because of her.

Image from a recent visit to the Ferguson Public Library

When talking about her portrayal of Harriet Tubman, Kathryn speaks of her in the present tense.

"They wanted $40,000 just to catch Moses!" Kathryn says, emphatically, jumping between herself and Harriet Tubman, known also as "Moses".

She refers to her as living history and loves the work she does breathing life into this woman, one she emphatically calls her "shero". It’s not enough to read about history, she told me.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about Kathryn, who, through interviewing, has become a cherished friend to me, is that she doesn’t see her life as spectacular. She doesn’t think she’s out of the ordinary or that she’s “much special”.

During our visits I constantly tried to convince her that her stories and Harriet’s stories are both vital to the progression of Black Future because they’re both Black History. Living and breathing and storytelling history.

Should you ever be honored to see her version of Harriet Tubman, make sure you tell her the same. You can see more #MyUntold stories here on a special channel just for their collection.

]]>New Family Dinnershttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/1/31/new-family-dinners.htmlMocha Momma2015-01-31T20:02:16Z2015-01-31T20:02:16ZThings are changing in my family dynamics right now and it has nothing to do with our upcoming nuptials or the fact that my 2 youngest are ferrying between another residence and mine. It's mostly to do with the fact that my father lives with us now.

Last summer when my sisters and I sat down with our father to discuss living arrangements, I knew going into the conversation that I would be happy to live with him again. The last time we were under the same roof I was 13 years old and did my own ferrying between residences, but I was mostly with my mother. There are a few things that concerned me about him living here: we have a lot of stairs in this 2-story house, but he gets around just fine if not a tad bit slower than usual.

I recently shared this with a student who took it home to insist they eat at the dinner table.

Another concern of mine was whether we'd be able to spend time with him and get him involved in a new community in which he wasn't used to living. My father is a part of the Great Migration of Southern Blacks who went North and he's living in Chicago for more than 40 years of his life. He also spent time in New Jersey before marrying my mother.

I needn't have been concerned about either of those things. Dad is getting plenty of exercise at the YMCA where he swims to stay moving while I take a yoga class or do circuit training. He's also taken to exploring his new surroundings and takes off for a local senior center or other places he likes to visit. We're all good on this front.

I also hadn't expected to change our music listening tastes when dad moved in with us. Normally, we played more modern music but we've taken to LOVING what dad is sharing with us about music he likes. In the past 6 months, I've gotten to intimately know and enjoy the music of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly and Ella Fitzgerald and something called "Gypsy Jazz".

The thing that's changing right now is that Dad does most of the cooking now. As a New Orleans native, he does a fine job of that. (Hooray for shrimp etoufee and andouille sausage!) It could have been easy for us to move him in here and not change anything, but we're embracing the changes to make room for not just his presence, but his wisdom and his stories and his connections to his past whether that comes from listening to "Pennies From Heaven" or when we watch sports together. There are proven benefits of family dinners and this is our own magic we make.

But not the kind of magic that would come from a bubbling caldron of mystery spices. Our magic is simply from learning about each other in new ways when we sit down at the table together.

That's magic enough for our new family dinners.

----------------------------------------------------

The Family Dinner Project hopes to inspire families to enjoy food, fun, and conversation together. We're certainly inspired by our new family dinners. You can learn more about The Family Dinner Project on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #familydinnerforward.

As always, the stories, words, and opinions presented here are my own.

]]>Virtual Field Trip: The Nature Conservancyhttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/1/29/virtual-field-trip-the-nature-conservancy.htmlMocha Momma2015-01-29T17:24:45Z2015-01-29T17:24:45ZThis is a sponsored post. However, my passion for education and global concerns are, as always, my own.

This has been a week filled with nasty science-y type stuff but without going into too much detail I will say that the word "phlegm" has passed my contagious lips more often than I'd like. Suffice to say that I've spent enough time in bed that I miss my students.

THAT'S HOW SICK I AM. I MISS WORK.

I knew it would hit me eventually and I've done enough traveling to schools (22 by my last count and that's just for this month) that it was inevitable that I would catch something the little petri dishes, err, students would eventually pass on to me. With technology, however, I'm staying on top of things and got to Skype with a teacher friend of mine where we did a brainstorm session for Black History Month. When I heard about this virtual field trip and The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with Nature Works I was reminded of the great times in which we live.

There's a virtual field trip to Burkina Faso that students can experience. A virtual field trip.

I'm a big fan of field trips. Taking students out of school or giving them new adventures is an enjoyable part of my job. You can only learn so much inside the 4 walls of a classroom with textbooks. I've read Diary of a Young Girl with my students in the past but watching them experience it as a play was something special. Each year we take our 7th grade students to St. Louis for a weather-related field trip at Busch Stadium after they've spent time studying weather in science. But, we stay for a baseball game and seeing the faces of some students who have never been to a professional stadium or sports event is where the real thrill is. I'll fight this tooth and nail with anyone who disagrees.

Virtual Field Trip

Here are the details of a science and geography field trip you can take with grades 3 and up next Thursday, February 5 at noon (EST) on YouTube:

Where: The Deserts and Grasslands of Africa

What: During the 40 minute field trip, students will meet an African farmer in Burkina Faso who has invented a method of restoring forestlands that had been lost to desertification. After that, they'll go to Kenya to see how ecotourism has been a benefit to both the people and the wildlife there.

Hostedby: The Nature Conservancy, PBS LearningMedia, and The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Field Programs in Africa, field scientist Charles Oluchina

Key Concepts and Terms for Teachers and Classes (vocabulary pre-teaching):

The virtual field trip acts as most field trips do: students get to see their learning in action and will see how theories and concepts are applied in real life. Science, for me, wasn't any fun until I could see how it actually worked in real life. I suspect most people who are visual learners feel that same way.

Another part of the field trip are the resources from PBS LearningMedia which are a collection of videos, digital games and educational resources from the new PBS series EARTH A New Wild.

The Nature Conservancy is comprised of 550 scientists who helped create Nature Works Everywhere to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us—and how we can help keep it running strong. This is nature around the globe that my own school values. I know I talk about it all the time, but I'm really proud of the 6th grade research project we do on the Global Water Crisis. It takes something that many of us take for granted and puts the water crisis into perspective for 11 and 12 year olds. At first, they assume there is not water crisis because when they turned on the faucet this morning there was, magically, water coming out of it. What they learn, throughout the unit, is invaluable and helps them to see the world from a global perspective.

Why do adults march and protest? Why do they rally for places that don't have access to clean water? Why do adults sign Change.org petitions?

Because we see things globally.

That's why I'm happy to share a virtual field trip like this.

This is the first in a series aimed at building students’ knowledge of and emotional connection to environmental issues that are at the heart of The Nature Conservancy’s mission.

Who Are Your Hosts?

Host: Tyler DeWitt, science teacher

The host will serve as the emcee of the Google Hangout on Air. High energy and comfortable in front of the camera, the host will introduce the field trip, set up the context, interview the expert, manage transitions between video and live event, introduce schools, etc.

Expert: Charles Oluchina, Director of Africa Field Programs, Kenya

Born in Nairobi, Charles grew up in Kenya. His physician father’s work took the family from the Western Rift Valley to coastal Mombasa. After earning a degree in natural resources management, Charles gained extensive conservation experience with USAID before joining The Nature Conservancy.

This is a sponsored series with Wells Fargo. I was invited to reflect on, and share, my Untold story. This is part one of a two-part post.

Kathryn Harris deals in untold stories but her job is in making sure they see the light of day. The stories are with her every day. Literally. Kathryn is a librarian.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned before that I wanted to become a librarian. I have an immense amount of respect for them or how they’ve shaped my life, but the truth is that they have. My first library card was a stolen one from my mother at the Chicago Public Library. She used to hand me her card to use and check out children’s books, but it didn’t have my name on it so it didn’t feel like mine.

Chicago Public Library, courtesy of Serge Melki

When I finally secured one for myself we had moved to a small, diverse suburb south of Chicago and it wasn’t as impressive or foreboding as the architectural beauty of the columns and old school feel of the Chicago Public Library. That didn’t matter. In fact, the card was more important to me than the building.

The building, however, must be explained. Instead of the classic look of our old library, it was in an abandoned house at the end of a long street across from the country club where we used to go for dinner as a family to Taco Night or sometimes for brunch on the weekends. Someone must have donated it to the village (as our suburb was known) and it housed all the Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon I would ever want to read.

During the summer of my 5th grade school year, I was in charge of putting my younger sister in the red wagon along with my books to be returned (or albums that I borrowed like Annie or Really Rosie) and haul her up the hill to the library.

I, personally, didn’t just fall in love with books or the worlds they opened for me. I fell in love with the librarian. She knew everything and everybody who entered the front door which looked similar to the one on our house.

Beverly Simpson's Untold Story

As I spent time finding an untold story on my own, I was inspired by Beverly's story because, as you'll see if you watch this video and then read on about Kathryn Harris, these women share some commonalities. When Beverly says, "I've been proud and I let no one take that from me" I think of Kathryn.

It was a no-brainer, then, for me to find my own favorite librarians in every town I’ve lived in since that time. Kathryn was an easy find. I’ve known her, or, rather, her reputation, for the last 20 years. These days, she works at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, a research library connected to the museum, in Springfield, Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, courtesy of Winonave

Each year our school visits the presidential library to do research for the history fair our students enter. Thehead research librarian works with our students and I watched her move swiftly and deftly between the tables to ask students what they needed. She’s the kind of person who, when you meet her, you know she’s got stories. Kathryn knows her books, she knows history, and she knows what fuses need to be lit.

In Your Untold Story, What Did You Want to Become?

When she allowed me to interview her to learn what makes her tick, she dropped a little bomb on me right away when it comes to her own story. I asked, “Did you always want to be a librarian?” and she said that no, she wanted to become a teacher.

Why didn’t you then?

I could not become a teacher because I did not posses the moral character.

What? That’s ridiculous! You’re the most refined, honorable person and people can see that as soon as they meet you. Who would say that and why?

Kathryn told me that she applied for her first job and the principal really liked her and wanted to hire her to teach French to high school students. But, because she had a year-and-a-half old daughter but no husband, she wasn’t hired for the job.

Why did you divulge that you were a single mother?

Because my mother told me to always tell the truth.

Unfortunately, her story spiraled from there. She lost her beloved mother and decided to return home to help care for younger siblings. One of her sorority sisters suggested she apply to the University of Illinois to earn a master’s degree in Library Science just before her mother’s passing and suddenly Kathryn was faced with a decision: attend school or stay at home. She passed on it and called them to say so.

Her story took a turn again when the department director contacted her to say that her credentials were impeccable and that they wanted her to attend school. When she told her story to them they counter-offered: take one semester off and when you come next semester we will hold a job for you, your scholarship, and we’ll find a way to help you with childcare for your daughter.

Stories have a way of taking a turn but Kathryn’s storytelling has a certain fidelity to it: she tells the truth. It’s her story and she owns it and only by being a reliable narrator does she find a certain amount of strength in how she lives.

When I went in to interview her I hadn’t expected finding such a common theme of single motherhood with her but when she shared her story with me I became aware of how powerful truth-telling and storytelling really are. They go hand-in-hand and she got to re-write her own and not be subjected to one that labeled her a woman of “poor moral character”.

In fact, she decided to become another character later in life: Harriet Tubman.

What about you? What stories have been left untold by you or your family members? Have you ever asked a stranger to tell you about their life and were surprised by it? You need to go talk to your local librarian. I'll bet they have amazing untold stories.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Wells Fargo Bank.

]]>It's Back Again! The H&R Block Budget Challengehttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2015/1/8/its-back-again-the-hr-block-budget-challenge.htmlMocha Momma2015-01-08T18:19:34Z2015-01-08T18:19:34ZEvery year with our 8th grade students we participate in something local that helps our students understand financial literacy. That's why I was willing to participate in the H&R Block Budget Challenge back in September. As someone who suffered through finances (needlessly, I might add! This is simply a learned skill.) for the bulk of my 20s, I consciously work towards getting this in our schools because financial literacy is extremely important.

So, teacher friends (and family since some of my family members are teachers), tell me if the following would make any sense to students.

The reason I ask about whether or not your students can read this is because I know mine can't. Every year, the same thing happens when we work on financial literacy.

The students act as if we're speaking a foreign language to them.

We work on a lot of important things as educators. Sure, we have to teach students how to pick out the main idea in a piece of text but before that? We had to work on building up to those skills.

First, they needed to know how to read it and pronounce all the words. Prior to that, they needed to understand how letters go together and what they sound like. Naturally, that all begins with teaching them the alphabet. Simple, right? I mean, it's not rocket science.

Except, learning to read is actually quite complicated and scientific. So, when I think about all the work that went into the foundational layers of getting to a place where students grasp the main idea it sort of scares me to apply that theory to finances. Collecting pennies and using piggy banks are truly things from my own upbringing, as well as my own children, that were foundational in helping to understand money.

"Let's collect as many quarters as we can and put them in this jar for when we go to the Laundromat."

I said this so often to my children when they were smaller that they repeated it back to me if they stopped on the street or found a quarter in someone's couch.

"If you want to get a more expensive piece of clothing, you'll have to save up."

This was something I said mostly to my eldest child because she is quite the fashion conscious. If she wanted a sweater that cost more than the allotted amount I had determined, she made the decision to do without until she had enough saved up to buy the one she wanted.

All of these conversations with my kids helped build the foundation of learning to understand money. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that she grew up and married a financial advisor, huh?

Part of those discussions ended up helping us discuss finances fluently. We'd been practicing all this time and making money decisions with thought and care. (By the way? In hindsight? I'm so glad I did this.)

That's why I enjoy working with and promoting the H&R Block Budget Challenge. It validates, for me, the value of doing this purposefully with students. I want to help spread the goal, as an educator, to teach true life financial skills to students. In my role as administrator I work to encourage our teachers to find the time to help make this necessary skill available to all students. I'm not talking Trust Fund Babies and really entitled people who probably already get this. I'm talking low-income students for whom this can make a world of difference. If you know anything about me, you know that I have a heart for them like no other.

Participants encounter real-world personal budgeting situations, problem-solving, and decision-making through an online simulation and accompanying lessons that meet national standards. With sessions October through April, teachers have six opportunities to participate. It's for students 14 years or older, enrolled in grade 9 through 12 full-time. It is FREE for teachers to sign up for and there are scholarships and grants to be won.

What are the grants and scholarships?

The top classrooms and teachers who budget the best will hand out awards (grants and scholarships) of $3 million. There is also a $100,000 GRAND PRIZE SCHOLARSHIP.

*This is a sponsored post for H&R Block. I am happy to give my opinion about programs for students but especially for teens. As always, opinions are my own.

]]>A Day at the Library in Ferguson, Missourihttp://www.kellywickham.com/mochamomma/2014/12/14/a-day-at-the-library-in-ferguson-missouri.htmlMocha Momma2014-12-15T01:33:09Z2014-12-15T01:33:09ZNot long ago, my good friend Rana asked if she could do anything to help the Ferguson Municipal Public Library and I had followed the buzz around the social media campaign to get them books and resources while they remained opened during protests. Their library is one of the first things I began to monitor closely as students were showing up and volunteers were helping the people seeking a safe haven. Rana offered to immediately send 25 copies of one of the titles that Little Pickle Press publishes titled What Does it Mean to Be Safe? that she wrote and that Sandra Salsbury illustrated.

If I were completely honest I would have to mention that the fact that there's an adorable brown boy on the cover of the book makes me happy so I was thrilled that she was donating them.

Between Rana's offer and 2 days ago, I realized that taking the books there personally was going to be my preferred method. She could have mailed them but I like that they came to my home first. As I waited for the books to arrive I read in the LA Times that the library in Ferguson had received over $350,000 in donations.

Since I'm an avid Reddit reader, I learned that the library director, Scott Bonner, would be doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) and I followed it religiously. Everything I was reading started to thaw my blackened, frozen heart so by the time I read that author John Green would be donating books (and was, subsequently, embarrassed for not doing so privately) I shared a screenshot of that on my Facebook page.

By this time, I reached out to Scott Bonner myself by calling the library and asking if I could help in any way. A lovely library worker answered my questions (apparently, Scott has been super busy and wasn't available) and said that the donations they've been receiving from all over the world were a bit overwhelming but also quite wonderful.

Naturally, I asked her, "What would be most helpful to the library at this time?"

"VOLUNTEERS," she said enthusiastically. "We have a lot of boxes of books that need organizing."

"Great," I told her. "I live in Springfield and can be there all day this Saturday."

I took to social media again and asked if any friends would like to join me. Part of me figured that some of my local friends might want to hop in the car with me (and they did!) and that some friends in the St. Louis area would also drop by for the day (and theydid!). Honestly, though, I didn't expect my friend Jasmine to drive up from Arkansas.

That's not even the thing that floored me the most.

It was seeing a packed library on a Saturday and getting to witness it come alive.

Or maybe it was opening boxes of books with accompanying letters of support, many of which used #BlackLivesMatter somewhere in their writing.

Or maybe it was getting the see the actual books people sent.

Or maybe it was the Congressman's office who sent a note encouraging the library workers.

Or maybe it was the plethora of authors who sent their own books with letters.

Or maybe it was the multicultural titles and deliberate agency people took when choosing books to donate.

Or maybe it was reading the incredibly heartfelt letters people wrote. Sometimes they signed them and sometimes they chose to remain anonymous.

Or maybe it was opening a box from a famous author (whose name I found covered up elsewhere on the box from previous use).

Or maybe it was opening the actual box of John Green titles he sent and waving the card around frantically to my friend DeShanee and screaming, "THESE ARE THE BOOKS HE SAID HE WAS SENDING."

Sure, there was excitement throughout the day but it was mostly a roller coaster of emotions. There were patrons in the library that each of us connected with or smiled at or people who asked who this crew was taking over the children's section with box after box.

Scott told us that the most helpful thing we could do is organize several dozen boxes of donations so our crew split into teams to tackle this. Some worked in the children's section sorting books by children's, YA, and adult. After that, they alphabetized them so that when we boxed them back up we could label them thus making it easier for the library staff to get them into the hands of community members.

It was deeply inspiring to see so many social justice titles donated. Some of the letters denoted that, but one in particular stood out for me from a mixed race librarian who wrote that growing up in the 1970s she found herself seeking books with characters who looked like her.

Now, that I can totally relate to.

We learned that being library volunteers meant that we were all sweaty by the end of the day because there was some serious physical work involved.

Luckily, my own school librarian, Trisha, came with me and helped with titles if some of us didn't know if they were YA or adult.

Many of my friends were meeting one another for the first time and coming together for volunteer work will make lifelong friends of many of them.

I take full credit for knowing some really incredible people and just connecting them.

This is my friend Elizabeth and her daughter. They helped with the children's books.

Most of the pictures of books we took were because so many of them are titles that are going on our own reading lists.

I didn't expect that connecting with some of the Ferguson residents visiting the library would be such a joyful thing, but it was. One of the things I mentioned to my friend Jasmine was that I had a sense that I wasn't always meeting their eyes.

Jasmine is a therapist by trade and she nailed it right away when I mentioned this to her.

"It's connection, Kelly. It's looking people in the eye knowing they are healing and maybe it's some guilt or not wanting to connect because that can be painful."

Right in the gut. She got me.

Scott made sure we filled out volunteer forms so he could have some record and data of our being there and he insisted we take a photo together at the end. Everyone who saw this photo commented on Jaelithe's son on the far right who couldn't stop reading to take a picture.

He worked the entire time and was, like us, anxious to pick up a book to read and not simply organize.

Dude. We all get that.

There's a lot of healing that is already happening in Ferguson and we got to witness just a little bit of that on Saturday. I'm not sure what it is I want to say about that because it's just the beginning and, being there made me realize how much physical and emotional effort it will take.

We did a small thing. I didn't give too much thought to making the trip to Ferguson because I've been watching so many people so much work around protests and education and this thing seemed like it fit. At least for the moment. This statue outside of the library seemed painfully apt of a child watching the world in a book, but I was also reminded of how much the world is watching.

If you're in the area and would like to volunteer, I'm sure Scott and the rest of the staff would appreciate it. We already told him we would return.

Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.Henri Nouwen